Memphis, Tennessee will be the stage for Bj Penn’s possible three-peat title defense as he headlines UFC 107 facing off against a hungry and talented Diego Sanchez. Having fought for 44 minutes and 7 seconds in his last three fights, there is no doubt when it comes to The Nightmare’s cardio capability. Having earned the judges nod over Stevenson and Guida, Sanchez holds one attribute over the often questioned fitness level of the current champ in Penn. As for BJ, he continues to plead his case that he feels fit and in great shape despite his “softer” appearance. Stepping into the octagon on Saturday, the Prodigy will undoubtedly have a better all around game advantage while sacrificing only the aforementioned staying power to the younger Sanchez. This bout will test Diego’s ability to pace himself as far as his aggressiveness is concerned as Penn is a technical striker with cobra like patience. Having said he is enjoying fighting again, Penn has the desire to win and with that it can be expected he will remain on top of the Lightweight division for quite some time.

Prediction: Penn via TKO late Round 3. Bj will utilize his superior jiu jistu to neutralize the ferocious attack from Sanchez ultimately gaining dominant position to trap and defeat Sanchez.

Frank Mir vs Cheick Kongo

The co-main event of the evening embodies the roots of MMA with the striker vs grappler scenario being tested once again. The sheer strength of Kongo is enough to intimidate most people, pair that with a lengthy kickboxing history and you have a very serious standup fighter. Fortunately for Mir, you also get a limited ground fighter. As a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt, Frank Mir has the upper hand when the fight hits the mat. Unlike the French knockout artist, Mir is not limited to his favored style giving him a great advantage. Mir will look to exploit Kongo’s wrestling and grappling weakness and stop Cheick’s second attempt to climb the Heavyweight ranks.

Prediction: Mir via Submission Round 1. I would imagine Frank will not want to let this fight continue too far thereby increasing Kongo’s chance to catch him with a powerful shot. Look for a quick takedown followed by distraction ground and pound to create an opening for a limb attack.

Jon Fitch vs Mike Pierce

Jon Fitch is always an exciting fighter, that being said some may not believe the statement come Saturday night. In what was shaping up to be a highly touted match up against Thiago Alves, Fitch’s opponent has been swapped for a successful college wrestler in Mike Pierce. In a recurring trend we have seen some slow matches due to a possible reluctance to give up position or maybe just a lack of knowledge on how to apply techniques outside of a fighter’s comfort zone. Should this match leave the feet it can not be over looked that Pierce will attempt to hold Jon enough to land some power shots for the hail mary finish. With such a well rounded game, Fitch should be able to dominate the strikes and finish early.

Prediction: Jon Fitch via KO round 1. Quick feet and quicker hands will be key for Fitch to eliminate Pierce’s takedown attempts and allow for a well timed combo to end the night early.

Ken Florian vs Clay Guida

Having recently made the move to Tristar gym in Montreal, Ken Flo could be redefining his image by tweaking the already impeccable talent and skill set he used to skyrocket to the forefront of the 155lbs order. This fight pits two of the next best athletes in the Lightweight division. Guida’s ability to push the pace and continue driving will be the biggest threat to Florian’s methodical attitude. Timing and counter attacking has always proved valuable to Kenny and could be difficult given that Guida is about as predictable as the Tazmanian Devil. In another tilt that sees one opponent being tremendously well rounded versus another who has such strength in one area, fans can count on Ken Flo minimizing the contact on the feet which will force The Carpenter to dig deep and translate his toe to toe brand of domination into a ground and pound deconstruction.

Prediction: Florian via Submission Round 2. The first 5 minutes of this battle will be just that – an outright war with neither fighter giving an inch. Once the pace has been set and Kenny can execute an early takedown in the second round, watch the experience advantage take over and see Guida drop to 25 and 8.

One Response to “
Top MMA News Breaks Down UFC 107 ”

Congratulations on the quality picks, Mike. These are my thoughts on last night’s fights, I’d love to hear yours… or anyone else’s for that matter.

First of all, I want to say one more time what a spectacular night of fights those were last night. It was the type of card that should really remind any MMA fan why we love this sport.

The main event was not amazing, mostly because it was so one-sided. BJ is one of those rare fighters that exists on an entirely different plane. Anderson Silva, Fedor Emelianenko and Georges St-Pierre are the only other fighters with similar claims to MMA supremacy. Diego Sanchez showed a lot of mental fortitude and never lost the fire to compete. He also showed amazing resilience in surviving a first round knock-down that BJ followed with a barrage of shots from above. I still think Gray Maynard poses interesting problems for BJ Penn at LW and Frankie Edgar has looked sharp, but the UFC might soon need to look outside its roster to find compelling challenges.

Mir looked excellent, with the exception of rushing in too rashly and almost ending up getting stuck under Kongo. Still, his weight training has clearly paid off as he physically pushed Kongo to the ground with his fist. Also, it seemed apparent that Mir had gotten inside Kongo’s head as the big Frenchman held his hands way too low. Kongo needs to win another three or four in a row to get another sniff at a contender. Personally, I’m not sure he has another run like that in him. To review, Mir looked massive and the choke was slick, but, again, if Mir had missed it he would have been in trouble. That won’t fly against the top-five heavyweights.

Florian, on the other hand, looked almost flawless in his clinical dissection of Clay Guida. Aside from being put briefly on his back, Florian thoroughly dominated “The Carpenter.” That cut on Clay’s scalp was caused by classic “Hell-bow” fury. Let’s face it, “KenFlo’s” counter striking was awesome to behold. I now have Kenny as my firm world number two– Shinya Aioki is not nearly as well-rounded.

Perhaps the biggest story of the night was the excellent technique shown by Mike Pierce, both on the feet and on the ground. I believe I referred to Pierce as “semi-interesting” in my predictions, but I’ve officially upgraded him to blue-chip prospect. Fitch is unquestionably an elite fighter, but Pierce had his moments throughout the fight and clearly won the third round. He nearly finished Fitch with a flurry at the final bell, as well. As for Fitch, I’m calling for a fight with Koscheck for a title shot. I don’t care that they’re friends, it would be an awesome fight and I’ve had enough of these two asking for another shot at St-Pierre while refusing to fight a fellow top contender.

You can’t go 10-1 without a bit of help and I definitely got some from the judges in the Struve vs. Buentello fight. Don’t get me wrong, I had the Flailing-Dutchman up 29-28 on my card, but we’ve seen judges undervalue leg kicks in the past and “The Headhunter” definitely lived up to his name throughout. I got another bit of help when Belcher outlasted Gouveia in an all-out slug fest. It was a high-risk gamble, but Belcher has taken his conditioning to a new level and should be given a top-five MW opponent in the near future. I think the currently-opponentless Chael Sonnen, who was just budged out of a fight with Nate Marqardt by Vitor Belfort, would make sense.

Wiman, Hendricks, and Palhares all did pretty much exactly what I thought they would. It was this stretch of fights that really jacked up my score on MMAPLayground.com.

DaMarques Johnson showed a good amount of composure setting up that upkick that set Edgar Garcia up for the fight-ending triangle choke, the again Johnson also demonstrated very porous stand-up defence getting rocked twice on the feet. As I said before, neither of these guys is likely to make an impact in the welterweight division. If I had to miss one fight, I don’t mind being wrong here. Besides, Garcia was clearly winning until he lost.

Finally, TJ Grant cleared his good name as a legit contender dispatching Kevin Burns with relative ease via first round TKO. I haven’t seen the fight yet, but it sounds from descriptions as though Grant controlled the action pretty well. I still like Grant to climb the lightweight ladder and hope he can get at least on a televised prelim or a SpikeTV card in the near future. He also came through for me on my cash bet, which was nice.